Type Abugida Child systems Ojibwe, Inuktitut | Time period 1850s-present Direction Left-to-right | |
Languages East Cree, Moose Cree, Naskapi Parent systems Western Cree
Eastern Cree syllabics | ||
Eastern Cree syllabics are a variant of Canadian Aboriginal syllabics used to write all the Cree dialects from Moosonee, Ontario to Kawawachikamach on the Quebec–Labrador border in Canada that use syllabics.
Cree syllabics uses different glyphs to indicate consonants, and changes the orientation of these glyphs to indicate the vowel that follows it. The basic principles of Canadian syllabic writing are outlined in the article for Canadian Aboriginal syllabics.
In this article, Cree words and sounds will transcribed using the Standard Roman Orthography.
Inventory
The primary difference between eastern and western Cree orthographies is the shape of the final consonants (consonant sounds with no following vowel). Eastern Cree dialects write finals with a superscripted a-syllabic. ᒫᔅᑰᒡ /māskōc/ has two finals, ᔅ /s/ and ᒡ /c/. Other differences are placing the diacritic for labialization (/w/) before rather than after the letter—ᑖᐺ /tāpwē/ (Western Cree ᑖᐻ),—and several additional series for consonants not found in Western Cree.
*Th is rare and used only in words borrowed from other languages.
Other finals: